Mighty Joe Young

Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack

1949

****

Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1949 adventure Mighty Joe Young is regarded as an absolute classic, winning an Academy Award and praised as being one of the best examples of stop-motion animation of all time. It failed at the box office and recorded a loss of $675,000, which was almost half of the film's budget. That's over $6,600,000 in today's money. It's hardly surprise though really, as it is a smaller, less epic version of King Kong which had had its day sixteen year previous. Son of Kong, which came out later the same year as King Kong didn't do that well in the scheme of things, so another attempt by the same team seemed a bit unoriginal, if not a little lazy. The stop-motion animation was more advanced but really only just and Mighty Joe Young just didn't have half the impact or hype that King Kong had, and neither did it have anything particularly memorable or iconic about it. In its defence though, it took an over the top premise and made it somewhat realistic, that concentrated more on the human element of the story, rather than the over-blown action sequences that kept the moral of the story to one side somewhat. There is a case to be made that bigger and stronger isn't always better, and Mighty Joe Young so some way in opening that dialogue, although in this case, unfortunately, bigger and stronger wins outright. King Kong also came first. There are certain scenes that I adore though, the sadness between Terry Moore's character and her pet Gorilla as they perform night after night, to smaller and rowdier crowds and the change of heart of the would be villain of the film Max O'Hara (Played by Robert Armstrong). There is also an amazing scene whereby Mighty Joe Young gets violently plastered after three mischievous drunkards sneak back stage with a bottle of whiskey. The great Willis H. O'Brien was hired once again as special effects maestro after working on the original King Kong, although he concentrated more on the overall effects and let his King Kong assistant, Ray Harryhausen, take over the stop-motion technicalities. It was a move that would change the future of motion picture special effects forever and for that, we should all be thankful. It's very similar to King Kong but there is a certain innocents about Mighty Joe Young, something pure and very charming about it. I think it is rightfully regarded as a classic, although it isn't perfect, it's entertaining throughout and, for good or for bad, is more historically important in the world of cinema than many may give it credit for.